
Purpose-driven businesses top £130 billion income per annum
Co-operative and mutual businesses account for over £133.5bn of income annually and touch the lives of 1 in 3 people in the UK, according to a new report published by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Mutuals.
These businesses have a distinct purpose to serve their customers and communities, in contrast to investor owned firms.
Mutuals exist in every sector of the economy, from financial services to housing, to food retailing, to public services and sport. Whether it is through supplying affordable and sustainable services to consumers, providing rewarding work or strengthening community enterprise, a strong network of co-operative and mutual businesses plays an important part in a diverse and modern British economy.
The report shows significant income from each of the various sub-sectors of the co-operative and mutual sector:
from co-operatives:£36.1bn
from building societies:£5.8bn
from friendly societies & mutual insurers:£19.6bn
from housing associations:£20.0bn
from NHS foundation trusts:£52.0bn
Total:£133.5bn
At a time when Brexit dominates the UK policy agenda, mutual businesses are continuing to grow – creating an economy and society that works in the interests of the widest number of people by sharing power in, and the rewards of, business.
Mutuals help to deliver a wide range of public policy objectives. They:
- Strengthen a UK owned business sector
- Spread wealth more broadly and fairly throughout the country
- Provide competition and choice for consumers in a range of markets especially those for essential goods and services
- Create diversity in business, withbusiness strategies for a healthy, balanced economy that take a longer-term view and act as a counterbalance to mitigate systemic risk to the economy
- Create business structures for public service providers that keep them accountable to their users and taxpayers, reducing centralisation and bureaucracy
- Provide more than just an economic benefit to local communities by aiding social bonding and stakeholder empowerment
- Rebuild and maintain public trust in business
Published today, the UK Mutual Economy Report makes a number of policy recommendations for increasing the contribution of co-operative and mutual business to growth, prosperity and fairness.
The All-Party Group calls on all parties to encourage:
- Greater recognition and policy understanding of the sector by national and devolved politicians;
- A commitment to an enabling legislative environment for the sector in the UK and
- An understanding of where regulation disproportionately affects the sector and a commitment to address this where it occurs
Parliamentary Group Chair Gareth Thomas MP said:
“Whether it is through providing rewarding work, strengthening community enterprise, or supplying affordable and sustainable services to consumers, this report clearly shows that a strong network of co-operative and mutual businesses plays an important part in a diverse and modern British economy.”
View the report